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I find the Jarryd Hayne story fascinating, as I do whenever an Aussie reaches the pinnacle of any sport. From Daniel Ricciardo, Matthew Dellavedova to Jason Day and now Jarryd, I mind myself watching a sport that I may otherwise have little interest in.
Watching sports I don’t understand because I have someone to follow accelerates my understanding and desire to know more about the game. And I now find myself glued to 49ers matches.
I think it’s funny that the Americans have only recently worked out that Aussie kids from the south of the continent are brilliant with precision passing by foot due to their Australian rules football back ground. And they are only now starting to learn that we have freaks like Hayne running around on the central and northern east coast of our country thanks to rugby league.
As the Americans slowly catch on to our athletes, our entire continent begins tuning in to college football and the NFL.
While the Americans catch on to our athletes, the Australian Football League continues with their international rookie experiment. The experiment has seen its first born and raised American in Jason Holmes make an impressive impact in his first game.
Other than Holmes’s family, I doubt any Americans tuned in but that means little as this will change with time and more highlights. Considering Holmes’s lack of experience with the game he has an impressive leap and with time will be a vital cog in the Saints’ make up.
Despite Holmes’s recent success there is another American by the name of Alex struggling to even get on an AFL list. While I admire Alex for giving our a game a go and coming up through the VFL, I was amazed that no AFL club can list him as an international rookie. Why? Well due to these rules:
In addition to six rookie-listed players, each club can include up to three additional players (now referred to as Category B rookies) on its Rookie List provided the player either:
• has not registered in an Australian Football competition for three years immediately before inclusion on the Rookie List;
• is an international player, meaning he is not an Australian citizen and has not lived in Australia for a substantial period
So an athlete who comes from another country, through his own blood sweat and tears and own financial cost, who takes up the VFL competition or any other league in Australia, in the hope of making the AFL, is no longer able to be listed as an international rookie. Yep, how dumb is that?
Sunday August 30, 2015 sees history in the AFL as the first Canadian goes up in the ruck against the first American. Appropriately the team colours for Mike Pyke accurately reflect Canada and Jason Holmes almost gets there with red, white and black.
These two guys are great stories and have made our game even better. We need to encourage more talent, not add unnecessary road blocks like Alex currently faces. The AFL needs to change this rule and encourage guys like Alex to the game, even if it means taking the hard road through a lower competition.
To the AFL I say change this specific rule – “has not registered in an Australian Football competition for three years immediately before inclusion on the Rookie List” – as it’s not required.
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